Reserve officer

“ Soldiers discharged from active service who have been registered for reserve service in accordance with the provisions of Article 17 of this Law shall be selected to perform soldiers' reserve service by the military in conjunction with military service organs in accordance with the needs of the military. Those assessed to be fit for reserve officer positions shall perform officers' reserve service. ”

“ It is, indeed, a patriotic and far-sighted act on the part of a citizen to become a reserve officer, for, by so doing, he will increase his measure of usefulness for the time when his country will need him most and when he will, if he is a real, virile man, desire to be of the utmost service to his country. ”

“ Transfers of reserve officers within their category shall be made under such rules as the President may prescribe.To the extent provided for from time to time by appropriations for this specific purpose, the President may order reserve officers to active duty at any time and for any period, but, except in time of a national emergency expressly declared by the National Assembly, no reserve officer shall be employed on active duty for more than six months in each five years without his own consent. ”

“ Next to the conception of a sound plan of attack, and the issue of clear and comprehensive orders to the company commanders, the most important duty of the officer commanding a battalion is the handling of his reserve. It is by means of the reserve that he makes his influence felt in action, and by reinforcing the firing-line at the right time and at the right place keeps the attack moving and eventually attains the superiority of fire. ”

“ For instance, the reserve line is not always connected with the firing-lines by a communication-trench. Those persons whose duty it is to pay daily visits to the fire-trenches—Battalion Commanders, Gunner and Sapper officers, an occasional Staff Officer, and an occasional most devoted Padre—perform the journey as best they may. ”

“ The reserve must be exemplary in their good conduct; every soldier of which it is composed must consider himself at all times a sentinel at the post of danger, consequently at the post of honour. Orders were issued that no man was on any pretence whatever to enter the town without being accompanied by a non-commissioned officer, who was held strictly responsible for the due return of those committed to his charge. Parties were ordered frequently to patrol the town during the night, and make prisoners of any stragglers they should meet. ”

“ To appoint one over the heads of others would bring friction. We know war. Supply is a part of war. And we shall keep matters in our own hands——" and promotions, too, as the reserves might whisper.
A point which the regulars dwelt upon even more emphatically was that the reserve officers did not know discipline and army forms. Some of these reservists had directed thousands of men in organizations [387] at home, without knowing how to drill a company. In their experience, building railroad yards and warehouses did not require military etiquette. ”

“ The President alone is authorized to appoint officers in the Reserve Corps. Each officer must be physically, mentally, and morally qualified to hold his commission. The highest rank in the reserve corps will be that of major.
Age limits for appointment in the line of the Reserve Corps:
2nd Lieutenants must be under 32 years of age. ”

“ Along with the reorganization of the Organized Reserve Corps divisions, the Army published new regulations formalizing a "Ready Reserve" concept. Under the new rules the Ready Reserve comprised Early and Late Ready Forces, categories which replaced the old Class A, B, and C units. The Early Ready Force was to have 110 percent officer and 100 percent enlisted strength, while the Late Ready Force, which included all Organized Reserve Corps divisions, was to have 100 percent officer and 5 percent enlisted strength. ”

“ The battalions which did not secure a Regular Commanding Officer got a Lieut.-Colonel from the Reserve of Officers, often one who had recently given up command of one of the regular battalions of the regiment. Besides officers from the Reserve of Officers, there were also a considerable number of men who had done five or six years’ service in the Regular Army or the Militia and had then retired without joining the Reserve. ”

“ One day the reserve graduates might also have promotion, and one day, too, the reserve officers, captains and lieutenants and a few majors of the line, arriving with the divisions from the training camps—as our organization grew and was knit together—might also have promotion.
About this time promotion was becoming a form of intoxication with the regulars. They must be cared for first; in due course, after the reservists became soldiers, the reservists would have their turn. New tables of organization were being devised which called for more high-ranking officers. ”

“ Reserve officers are chosen mainly from qualified retired servicemen, civil officials, cadres of the people's armed forces departments, cadres of the militia and civilian technicians with the appropriate military specialties. Reserve soldiers are chosen mainly from qualified discharged soldiers, trained primary militia members, and civilians with the appropriate military specialties. ”

“ As for the reserves, suffice it to say that officers of the active army refuse to regard them seriously, and consider them merely in the light of civilians playing at soldiering. The officers of the reserve (for the most part promoted privates) have received no military education worthy of the name. The non-commissioned officers and men consider the month they have to serve every other year a hateful episode. ”

“ Modification of authorized strengths for certain Army National Guard, Marine Corps Reserve, and Air National Guard officers and Army National Guard enlisted personnel serving on full-time reserve component duty. Sec. 513. Clarification of authority to consider for a vacancy promotion National Guard officers ordered to active duty in support of a contingency operation. Sec. 514. Increase in mandatory retirement age for certain Reserve officers. Sec. 515. Age limit for retention of certain Reserve officers on active-status list as exception to removal for years of commissioned service. ”

“ The men for the Reserve might be taken at a lower height, and from the age of sixteen to forty-five; but [Pg 18] serving in the Reserve should not exempt individuals from taking their turn if drawn in the mean time for the First or Regular Army. When the Reserve, or a part of it is embodied, a few officers and non-commissioned officers (receiving additional pay when so employed) , should be taken for a short time from the Regular Regiments, to assist in the formation and drilling of the corps; but any permanent staff for this purpose must be found not only useless, but expensive. ”

“ When their volunteer service is completed they may pass into the reserve, or be subjected to an examination for commissions as officers either in the active army or the reserve. In the reserve, whether as officers or privates, they are liable to be called for duty any time before their thirty-sixth year. ”

“ Noncommissioned officers of the Regular Force regular force between the ages of twenty-one and thirty years who are recommended for appointment as third lieutenants shall pursue the course of instruction of six months prescribed for those who have completed their trainee instruction, and who are recommended for training to qualify as reserve officers. Upon satisfactory completion of this course they may be appointed and commissioned third lieutenants of the Reserves and assigned to an organization of the Reserve Force. ”

“ Those who have had military service and who have not reached the age of fifty are considered reserves. Officers remain in the reserve until the age of sixty. Various factors—primarily occupational situations, physical condition, and lack of reserve training—operate to erode this force, and those considered useful, or trained, reserves constitute one-half or less of the group. Most of the some 250,000 men released in the latest five-year period, however, are available, physically fit, and familiar with the weapons and equipment in use by the armed forces. ”

“ Finding a proper substitute of good character, or paying down say—twenty pounds, under the same rules as those established for the regular army, should entitle individuals to exemption from serving in the army of reserve. And it might fully be expected, that the reserve regiments, under officers so patriotic and zealous as those of our militia always were, would soon become like battalions of the line, and so highly disciplined as [Pg 19] quite to equal them, as was the case with many of our militia corps last war. ”

“ The proposal of the General Staff of the army has been that the men should enlist for two years and then spend five years in the reserve. The five years in the reserve is impossible in this country, because we have no compulsory military service and because it is intended by the authors of the plan not to pay the reserve men. ”

“ He proposed that, instead of the revival of the militia, a bill for which was before the house, a reserve force should be established by compelling all soldiers who left the service at the end of ten years, under the act of 1847, without re-engaging, to serve five years after discharge in a reserve, which was to undergo six days' local military training in each year. ”

“ The term in the first reserve has been extended far beyond that originally contemplated, but in practice the service in the first and second reserves is merely nominal, and in the militia or national army likewise, as the men are only called out once a year for manœuvres, save in case of war or emergency. ”

“ We have enhanced our readiness and combat endurance by improving the Reserve Components. All reservists are assigned to units structured to complement and provide needed depth to our active forces. Some reserve personnel have also now been equipped with new equipment. ”

“ These reserves are particularly useful when the configuration of the country leads to double fronts of operations: they then fulfill the double object of observing the second front, and, in case of necessity, of aiding the operations of the main army when the enemy threatens its flanks or a reverse compels it to fall back toward this reserve.
Of course, care must be taken not to create dangerous detachments, and whenever these reserves can be dispensed with, it should be done, or the troops in the depots only be employed as reserves. ”

“ The ordinary term of service is fifteen years,--six with the colors and nine with the reserves; a reduction is made for men serving at remote Asiatic posts; the War Office may send soldiers into the reserve before the end of their terms. Reduction is also made, from eleven to thirteen years and a half, for various degrees of educational acquirement. Exemptions are also made for family reasons and on account of peculiar occupation or profession. ”

“ The training in the active reserve consists of two periods of training and maneuvers which last for four weeks each, in the Territorial army one period of two weeks, and in the Territorial reserve, no fixed period. There are more than 2,000 reservists per battalion produced by the length of the reserve service, and when the troops are mobilized the active units can be easily maintained at full war strength. The number available in this way gives enough men for each battalion and regiment in the field with enough men left over for routine home guard work. ”

“ END STRENGTHS FOR RESERVES ON ACTIVE DUTY IN SUPPORT OF THE RESERVES. Within the end strengths prescribed in section 411 (a) , the reserve components of the Armed Forces are authorized, as of September 30, 2009, the following number of Reserves to be serving on full-time active duty or full-time duty, in the case of members of the National Guard, for the purpose of organizing, administering, recruiting, instructing, or training the reserve components: (1) The Army National Guard of the United States, 32,060. (2) The Army Reserve, 16,170. (3) The Navy Reserve, 11,099. ”

“ You state in your order that you are going to be with the reserve all the time, and you send copies to all your officers, especially to Major Good who is commanding the cavalry, and you report what you have done by telegraph to the Chief of Staff. You decide to have the 3d Infantry be the reserve. If the 3d Infantry is the reserve and you are with it, it ought to be under your orders. The 3d Infantry will follow along behind the 2d Infantry until the latter regiment deploys. ”

“ After giving this question of a reserve for the army the most careful thought, after having heard the opinion of many officers of our army,—and those too best qualified to give opinions on a matter of this sort,—I am convinced that, under our system of military enlistment, it is impracticable to [Pg 56] accumulate, with either a long-term or a short-term enlistment period, a dependable reserve force of fairly well trained men. To use our army as a training school would destroy the army as such, and fail utterly to create any reserve that could be depended upon as a large body of troops. ”

“ Therefore, so soon as the system has been at work long enough to produce a force as large as the present total, that is, after the third year, there will be no need to keep up the establishment of 138,000 paid privates, the special reserve, or the now existing territorial force. There will be one homogeneous army, of which a small annual contingent will, after each year's training, be enlisted for paid service in India, Egypt, and the oversea stations, and a second small contingent, with extra training, will pass into the paid reserve for service in small oversea expeditions. ”